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<h1 align="center">PLÁCIDO DOMINGO’S OPERALIA<br>
THE WORLD OPERA CONTEST </h1>
<p>Operalia was founded in 1993 as a competition that gifted young singers would
be able to attend regardless of their economic means and that would lead not
only to one-off prizes but also to employment in opera ensembles around the
world.</p>
<p>Under <a href="http://www.placidodomingo.com/" target="_blank">Plácido
Domingo's</a> artistic aegis since its inception, Operalia has become one of
the most important international contests for opera singers of all voice categories
who are in the early stages of their career. It is a non-profit organization
that maintains a head office in Paris. Each year, the competition's rules and
application forms are distributed to opera companies, conservatories and individual
teachers, coaches, managers and agents all over the globe; press representatives
publicize the contest via international, national, regional and local television,
radio and newspapers. An average of 800 to 1, 000 applications and audio cassette
tapes are received each year. Operalia's Artistic Committee, whose members are
chosen by Domingo and work independently of each other, reviews all the applications,
listens to all the cassettes, and rates each candidate on a scale of one to
ten; the results are collated by the head office, and the top forty candidates
are flown at the sponsors' expense to the city where the competition is to be
held. Over a three-day period, an expert Jury (none of whose members have been
part of the Artistic Committee during the same year) listens to each young performer
sing two arias to piano accompaniment, after which the number of contestants
is narrowed down to approximately twenty for the semifinals. Each semifinalist
sings one aria, again to piano accompaniment, and the competitors are narrowed
to approximately ten for the final round - a public performance with orchestral
accompaniment. In addition to the first, second and third prizes - awarded by
<a href="/">Alberto W. Vilar</a> - there are two special prizes
for potential singers of zarzuela (Spanish operetta), offered by Plácido
Domingo in memory of his parents, who were both zarzuela artists. Another special
prize is awarded to the singer who receives the greatest number of votes from
the audience.</p>
<p>Plácido Domingo is present throughout the competition; he does not vote,
but he supervises the proceedings and is available to give artistic and career
advice to all of the participants. As he believes that the number of outstanding
young singers is much greater than the number of prizes, he is encouraging the
creation of a free "follow-up service" for Operalia laureates who
are seeking engagements appropriate to their capabilities. This branch of Operalia
will be permanently in contact with opera managers and agents.</p>
<p>Operalia winners appear frequently at La Scala, the Vienna Staatsoper, the
Opéra de Paris, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, and in Berlin,
Hamburg, Munich, Madrid, Barcelona, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston,
Geneva, Zurich, San Francisco and at other major venues all over the world.
Plácido Domingo's goal in creating Operalia, however, was to develop
a "team spirit" attitude based on mutual trust and friendship among
the various contestants, the Operalia organization, and himself. This remains
his, and the competition's, main purpose.</p>
<p>The Finals of 1993 Operalia competition was held at the glorious Salle Garnier
of the Opéra National de Paris, where Plácido Domingo has often
performed since 1973. In 1994, the venue was the Recording studios of Televisa
in Mexico City, where Domingo lived from the age of eight to the age of twenty-one.
The Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, his birthplace, hosted the 1995 competition,
whereas in 1996 Bordeaux's magnificent Grand Théâtre was the site
of the event. In 1997, Operalia was held in the Yuport Kan-I Hoken Hall in Tokyo
- a city that has often welcomed Domingo - and the following year the competition
moved to the Musikhalle in Hamburg, a city that has played a major role in Domingo's
career almost since its inception. 1999 brought Operalia to the Caribbean -
specifically, the Centro de Bellas Artes, Luis A. Ferré in San Juan,
Puerto Rico - and the following year the competition moved to the Royce Hall,
UCLA in Los Angeles,
one of the two American cities whose opera companies have made Domingo their
Artistic Director. In 2001, Operalia was a guest of the Washington
Opera - the other ensemble of which Domingo is Artistic Director - at the
Lisner Auditorium, Georges Washington University In 2002, Operalia returned
to Paris, but this time its venue was the historic Théâtre du Châtelet.</p>
<p>Ten competitions, nine cities, six countries, three continents and a Caribbean
island: these statistics are impressive enough. But the approximately 400 singers
who will have participated in Operalia by the time the 2002 Paris competition
is over represent hundreds of cities and towns, 50 countries and 5 continents.</p>
<p>Truly, the qualification of Operalia as "Plácido Domingo's World
Opera Contest" is no idle claim!</p>
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